Past evidence has shown that force and kinetic energy applied to small frictionless carts by fans remains constant as the mass of the carts changes; but the instantaneous velocity changed. We wanted to find out if and how much mass affects acceleration. The expected results were that acceleration would be affected significantly by a change in mass. We used two photo gates to measure instantaneous velocity at two separate points of two different carts with different weights, and used this information to find the acceleration of these cars over this distance.
Procedure
We set up two 1.2 meter frictionless tracks so that they create a continous 2.4 meter track. Then we set up a photogate .8 meters away from the reference line and another photogate 1.6 meters away from the reference line. We then attached a small piece of duct tape to the top of a fan so that it can block the sensor of the photogate, and then we attached the fan to a plastic cart tightly. We placed the cart on the track so that the beginning of the tape is even with the reference line. We held the car there and turned on the fan, and released it once the fan was at full strength. We let it go through both photogates. We repeated this process four more times with the lighter car, and then completed five trials of the same process with the heavier car.
Results
Acceleration at distance of .8 Meters to a distance of 1.6 Meters
Acceleration of lighter car (m/s^2)
Acceleration of heavy car (m/s^2)
Trial 1
.021
.013
Trial 2
.021
.012
Trial 3
.021
.015
Trial 4
.026
.014
Trial 5
.021
.015
Average
.022
.014
We measured the acceleration of two carts of different masses over an 80cm distance. The results show that the lighter cart had a greater acceleration for the distance traveled than did the heavier cart. For the five trials we did, the lighter cart had an average acceleration of .022 m/s^2 while the heavier cart had an average acceleration of only .014 m/s^2.
Conclusions
In conclusion, we found that the more mass an object has, the less acceleration is caused by a constant force. The fans could not accelerate the heavier car as fast as it could accelerate the lighter car.
The main problem we encountered was keeping our reference line constant. The fan would have to be turned on before we released the car, and it was difficult to release the car from the same point each trial. Maybe if we had a way of holding the car down firmly and then releasing properly at the correct time this data would be more accurate, rather than having our hands hold and release the carts. The same could be said for setting the photogate at the exact distances. It was difficult to line up the photogates at the proper distance because of the devices they were attached to. Better devices for holding the photogates would have also made our results more accurate.
And, as with almost any other experiment, more trials would help the overall accuracy, but I think we obtained enough results to formulate an appropriate conclusion.
Table of Contents
Mass vs. Acceleration
Chris, Shannon, Peter
Introduction
Past evidence has shown that force and kinetic energy applied to small frictionless carts by fans remains constant as the mass of the carts changes; but the instantaneous velocity changed. We wanted to find out if and how much mass affects acceleration. The expected results were that acceleration would be affected significantly by a change in mass. We used two photo gates to measure instantaneous velocity at two separate points of two different carts with different weights, and used this information to find the acceleration of these cars over this distance.
Procedure
We set up two 1.2 meter frictionless tracks so that they create a continous 2.4 meter track. Then we set up a photogate .8 meters away from the reference line and another photogate 1.6 meters away from the reference line. We then attached a small piece of duct tape to the top of a fan so that it can block the sensor of the photogate, and then we attached the fan to a plastic cart tightly. We placed the cart on the track so that the beginning of the tape is even with the reference line. We held the car there and turned on the fan, and released it once the fan was at full strength. We let it go through both photogates. We repeated this process four more times with the lighter car, and then completed five trials of the same process with the heavier car.
Results
Acceleration at distance of .8 Meters to a distance of 1.6 Meters
We measured the acceleration of two carts of different masses over an 80cm distance. The results show that the lighter cart had a greater acceleration for the distance traveled than did the heavier cart. For the five trials we did, the lighter cart had an average acceleration of .022 m/s^2 while the heavier cart had an average acceleration of only .014 m/s^2.
Conclusions
In conclusion, we found that the more mass an object has, the less acceleration is caused by a constant force. The fans could not accelerate the heavier car as fast as it could accelerate the lighter car.
The main problem we encountered was keeping our reference line constant. The fan would have to be turned on before we released the car, and it was difficult to release the car from the same point each trial. Maybe if we had a way of holding the car down firmly and then releasing properly at the correct time this data would be more accurate, rather than having our hands hold and release the carts. The same could be said for setting the photogate at the exact distances. It was difficult to line up the photogates at the proper distance because of the devices they were attached to. Better devices for holding the photogates would have also made our results more accurate.
And, as with almost any other experiment, more trials would help the overall accuracy, but I think we obtained enough results to formulate an appropriate conclusion.
References
No references were used for this project